Acclaimed quartet starts Chichester Chamber Concerts’ new year

Phil Hewitt

Chichester Chamber Concerts kick off the New Year with a change of venue as they welcome the Brentano Quartet.

Because of the refurbishment of the Assembly Room, the January concert in the series will be held in Christ Church, Old Market Avenue, Chichester, PO19 1SW.

Series chairman Anna Hill said: “Like the Assembly Room, Christ Church can hold 180 people and is a warm and attractive venue with car parking nearby (free in the evening).”

The concert is on Thursday, January 8 at 7.30pm.

Anna added: “Since its inception in 1992, the Brentano Quartet has appeared throughout the world to popular and critical acclaim. The Brentano is the winner of a number of prestigious awards and, following their first European tour, the Royal Philharmonic Award for most outstanding Debut.

“In recent seasons the Quartet has travelled widely appearing in the US, Canada, Europe, Japan and Australia. In addition to performing the full range of string quartet repertoire, the Quartet has an interest in very old and very new music and has worked with composers including Elliott Carter, Chou Wen-chung and György Kurtág.”

For Chichester, they will play: Mozart – String Quartet in B flat K458 The Hunt;

Their manager Elise Jennings said: “They are at the forefront of American string quartets. They are based in New York. They have just taken over at Yale, the music part of the university, but they are over here quite a lot in 2015. They have got three performances in the UK in January. They are doing Wigmore Hall, performing a similar programme to what they are doing in Chichester, and they are also performing at the University of York. And then they are coming back in April.

“I would not say there is one particular school of playing that is definitely American rather than British, but they have played together for so long now their playing is so refined. When you see and hear them, it is like they are moving as one.”